


clocks that lie broken

by littleboxes



Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV)
Genre: (1) line but its there, Angst, Canonical Character Death, Crying, Death, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Heavy Angst, Hurt No Comfort, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Other characters mentioned - Freeform, POV Bobby | Trevor Wilson (Julie and The Phantoms), Poisoning, art theft of the musical variety, based loosely on antifreeze poisoning, dying in a hospital, no happy ending, so much, the inherent trauma of your three best friends dying at the same time, theoretically canon compliant
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-12
Updated: 2020-10-12
Packaged: 2021-03-07 21:48:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,964
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26974672
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/littleboxes/pseuds/littleboxes
Summary: Time Before Sunset Curve Headlines the Orpheum Theater: 1 hourRose has been gone for ten minutes, and the rest of the band is still gone, and Bobby sighs. Probably went across the boulevard for the right street dogs. It wouldn’t normally bother him, but tonight’s theirnight-He sighs again, and keeps fiddling with his guitar. There’s the sound of a siren passing by. It’sfine. Even if Reggie’s a little forgetful, there’s no way that Luke will let any of them, let alone himself, be late to the gig that’s going to make themlegends.Still. Bobby sits on the stairs of the stage and hums to himself; a nervous habit he’s never really tried to kick.They’ll be here. Probably with a cold street dog for him, too.
Relationships: Alex & Bobby | Trevor Wilson & Luke Patterson & Reggie
Comments: 36
Kudos: 160





	clocks that lie broken

**Author's Note:**

> jay: there should be more bobby content  
> me: oh worm ?  
> i hc bobby as a year older than the rest of the boys so he's eighteen while they're 17  
> title's slightly edited and based on a line from unsaid emily

**Time Before** **_Sunset Curve_ ** **Headlines the Orpheum Theater: 2 hours**

 _I,_ Bobby thinks, as Luke, Alex, and Reggie leave, _am going to kill my bandmates. It sucks we won’t be able to perform, but some things you just can't let stand._

Rose is smirking at him, and Bobby sighs, and drags a hand over his face. 

“Okay, so, I’m a lapsed vegetarian,” he says, very unconvincingly, and Rose laughs. 

“I’m in good company, then,” she says, and he laughs.

They talk, and she makes it clear she’s not interested, and Bobby shrugs off the disappointment. 

They talk, and she tells him about some of the bands she was in, and he tells her about the handful of groups before Sunset Curve- handful is generous, really. There was a misguided attempt in middle school that never even got a name, and an early high school experiment only known as the _Naked Radiators_ that he tries not to think about. 

Rose laughs as he mutters the name, and then he joins in, because it really was _horrible_. 

  
  


**Time Before** **_Sunset Curve_ ** **Headlines the Orpheum Theater: 1 hour**

Rose has been gone for ten minutes, and the rest of the band is still gone, and Bobby sighs. Probably went across the boulevard for the right street dogs. It wouldn’t normally bother him, but tonight’s their _night_ -

He sighs again, and keeps fiddling with his guitar. There’s the sound of a siren passing by. It’s _fine_. Even if Reggie’s a little forgetful, there’s no way that Luke will let any of them, let alone himself, be late to the gig that’s going to make them _legends_.

Still. Bobby sits on the stairs of the stage and hums to himself; a nervous habit he’s never really tried to kick. 

They’ll be here. Probably with a cold street dog for him, too.

**Time Before** **_Sunset Curve_ ** **Headlines the Orpheum Theater: 30 minutes**

 _They’re going to be here_ , Bobby thinks, because there isn’t another option. Because the other option is the guys _ditched him_ on the night they’re playing the _Orpheum_ , and that just- that isn’t _possible_. 

(The third option is that something really bad has happened to them. But that’s just- that doesn’t _happen_ , in real life. So they’re fine, and they haven’t ditched him, and they’ll be here with like, five minutes to spare and Luke’ll laugh at him for worrying and they’ll all get onstage and fucking _rock it_ , and be the legends they’re meant to be.)

He moves his pick across the strings of his guitar. _Now or Never_ doesn’t sound the same played alone, and he stops. 

It’s fine. 

They’ll be here.

  
  
  


**Time Before** **_Sunset Curve_ ** **Headlines the Orpheum Theater: 5 minutes**

There’s a crowd outside that’s bigger than anything they’ve ever played and like, 70% of it is people that could make or break his career, and his band _isn’t here_ , and Robert Bobby Trevor Wilson is having a panic attack. 

It doesn’t make any _sense_ , and the assistants that keep knocking on the door of the dressing room he’s totally not hiding in are looking increasingly anxious because all Bobby can tell them is, “they’ll be here, I swear,” except Bobby isn’t actually sure of that, anymore, but he has no idea where they are, or what he’s supposed to do, because this gig is the culmination of everything they’ve been working for, for years, and cancelling it is _unthinkable_ but he can’t go onstage alone, and his band isn’t here!

**Time Before** **_Sunset Curve_ ** **Headlines the Orpheum Theater: -2 minutes**

Bobby is sitting in the corner of his dressing room having a staring match with his guitar and feeling furious and devastated and at an utter loss and sort of like his lungs are drowning in worry when there’s a knock on the door. 

His “come in,” is muffled by the sleeve of his hoodie his face is partially pressed into, and barely loud enough to be heard. 

Unfortunately, the assistant hears anyway, and opens the door.

“I have a call for you, from a Good Samaritan Hospital?”

Bobby freezes. There isn’t any fear, or denial, or anger, just _nothing_ , because he is absolutely not going to connect the dots labeled “missing bandmates” and “Good Samaritan Hospital,” he just _isn’t_ , but the assistant is holding a phone. So Bobby gets up.

He says “Hello?” and it’s robotic and he listens to the nurse on the other end say, “Robert Wilson? We’re speaking to you as you’re listed as the emergency contact for Reginald-” and Bobby knows he heard what else she said because he has the address of the hospital written on a notepad in front of him, but he doesn’t remember anything after that until, “-he was brought in with two other young men-” and the next thing Bobby remembers is tearing through the doors of the Orpheum like a bat out of hell.

**Time Before** **_Sunset Curve_ ** **Headlines the Orpheum Theater: -23 minutes**

It takes Bobby nine minutes to get to the hospital, three more to get the attention of a nurse, two minutes to walk to Reggie’s room, and then he’s there. He’s there, staring at Reggie, who’s lying still on the bed, and that’s _wrong_. Reggie _isn’t_ still, ever, not when he’s hopping around stage, not when he’s leaning an arm around whichever of them is nearest, not when he’s tapping his foot against the ground during their songwriting sessions- 

Reggie isn’t _still_ , except now he is, his eyes are closed and it almost looks like he’s sleeping, and Bobby hates it. 

He’d like to say he leaves for Alex’s room purely out of worry, but part of it is not being able to look at Reggie’s unsteady breaths anymore. 

So it figures, of course, that Alex’s room is worse. 

Alex isn’t still. Nobody could mistake him for sleeping, because his face is twisted in pain, and he’s so obviously distressed Bobby has to stop and close his eyes and remind himself to breathe. 

He can’t stand to look at Alex’s face, so he looks at his hands, except those are twitching too, and almost remind him of the way Alex twirls his drum sticks, except it’s not like that at all, and Alex lets out a quiet, pained moan, and Bobby flees. 

He moves toward Luke’s room automatically. He doesn’t want to see the last of his friends like this, but he can’t leave them alone (he has to call their parents. He doesn’t know any of their numbers, and he’s Luke, Alex, _and_ Reggie’s emergency contact, because Alex asked him and he said yes because they all know how his family is, and then somehow Reggie found out and asked him and he couldn’t say _no_ , and then Luke showed up to the studio with a worryingly full duffel bag on his shoulder, furious and upset, and what was he supposed to do? Except now they’re all in hospital beds and the machines are beeping in a way that doesn’t really make him feel better, and now he has to _call people_ -)

Luke’s hands are still, but his eyes are moving, and he’s so _pale_ , and Bobby just. Stands there, and stares. He stands there until he realizes he’s started crying, and then he leaves, to go ask the nurse for a phone.

**Time Before** **_Sunset Curve_ ** **Headlines the Orpheum Theater: -47 minutes**

Bobby hangs up on the now-sobbing Mrs Patterson, and tries not to do the same. It’s really dawned on him, what’s happening, and he feels numb and raw at the same time. 

Luke’s parents are on their way. Alex’s parents started crying and muttering something that sounded worryingly like _oh- knew- happen-_ and Bobby ended up giving the address of the hospital to a girl that sounded younger than Alex, so he’s not sure what’s happening there. Reggie’s house went straight to voicemail the three times he tried, so he gave up and left a message. 

Now he’s sitting in one of the waiting room chairs, and then the doctor- who’s name Bobby doesn’t remember- walks out, catches his eye, and asks, “Robert Wilson?” and Bobby nods and they walk out of the waiting room and towards where Reggie and Luke and Alex are lying (dying), and the doctor says a lot but all Bobby hears is, “I’m sorry for your loss-”

Apparently, whatever poisoned them was a mix of bad stuff that reacted to make it even more fast acting than just normal antifreeze poisoning. Apparently, it was Luke whose organs gave out first, and Reggie’s that gave out last. Apparently, Bobby is the last living member of Sunset Curve.

The doctor is looking slightly above Bobby’s left shoulder, no more happy to relay the news that Bobby’s three best friends are dead than he is to hear it, and Bobby forces himself to ask, “Did it hurt?”

He clears his throat, trying to get rid of the desperation, and tries again. 

“Was it- was it at least fast?” he asks, and the doctor blinks, and looks away. And doesn’t say anything, and keeps not saying anything, and doesn’t say anything when Bobby bursts into the kind of loud sobs he’d been pushing away in the middle of a hospital hallway. 

Later, he will sit in the waiting room and stare at a phone and think, _I need to make some more calls_. 

He won’t. 

He’ll sit in the waiting room until two people who are tear-streaked and frantic enough they can only be Mr and Mrs Patterson enter the room and see him and take in his expression. He watches them break apart in real time.

It’s been long enough he’s run out of tears, and when he speaks it sounds more like the creaking of a rusty door, and he says, “I, uh. I need to call Alex and Reggie’s parents, but I don’t know-”

Eventually, he calls Alex’s parents, again. They don’t pick up, and he hopes that means they’re on their way.

He calls Reggie’s parents again, and gets an angry-sounding, “We’re not interested!” and then hung up on. 

He calls Reggie’s parents again and leaves a message, and then discovers he isn’t totally out of tears.

**Time Before** **_Sunset Curve_ ** **Headlines the Orpheum Theater: -3 weeks and 2 days**

Later, he’ll go to the studio and be crying before he even opens the door. He’ll shove whatever’s closest to him into the three boxes he brought, and then leave, and never come back. He’ll shove the boxes into the barest corner of his apartment and then lie down on his shitty couch and cry.

**Time Before** **_Sunset Curve_ ** **Headlines the Orpheum Theater: -8 months and 6 weeks**

Later, he’ll look at the journals he took in a grief-filled haze from the studio, and have a horrible thought. He’ll justify it by telling himself Luke would’ve wanted the world to hear his songs, and he’ll never be a very good liar. He’ll never decide whether the glow the attention brings is worth the guilt that never goes away.

**Time Before** **_Sunset Curve_ ** **Headlines the Orpheum Theater: -1 year and 26 days**

Much later, Bobby will look up _antifreeze poisoning_ , and he’ll spend the night alternating between ugly tears and a bottle of vodka, and he’ll refuse to look at the records hanging on his walls.

**Time Before** **_Sunset Curve_ ** **Headlines the Orpheum Theater: -19 years and 10 months  
**

Much, much later, Trevor will walk down the boulevard with his daughter and tell her how disgusting and unsanitary street food is, and he'll make sure that she never looks at the vendors that line alleyways with anything more than disgust. Carrie won't ever really understand her dad's hatred for hotdogs, but she doesn't like them anyway, so it doesn't matter. 

**Author's Note:**

> comments are of course appreciated <3


End file.
